The staring and defiant
EAGLE EYES OF TEXAS
are upon you

Photo Essays - Series One

Perched over doors of buildings – is it a coincidence that these are the very buildings (banks, courthouses and post offices) where we take care of our most personal business?

Dignity on the old Ft. Worth Post Office
TE Photo

In a state that often gets press for things un-natural; there’s still a lot of nature to be found in Texas. Ornithologically-speaking, the Lone Star State is beyond rich.

First, we have the ultimate songster for the state bird. But then again, something like eight other states claim the Mockingbird. For the exotic, we’ve got scissor-tailed flycatchers, caracaras, spoonbills, and blue herons. Let’s hear other states claim those!

Brownsville has its famed wild parrots and Corpus Christi has its air-force of white pelicans. Rockport has its whooping cranes and every highway overpass between Houston and San Antonio has its springtime colony of swifts. Mentone and Sanderson are overrun with roadrunners and from Beaumont to Fort Davis, everyone and anyone who can mix sugar and water is treated to the antics of migrating hummingbirds. Thanks to the people of Wills Point and Habitat for Ornithology, bluebirds of happiness migrating through NE Texas are positively delirious.

All of the aforementioned species share two basic traits (except grackles and seagulls).

They either want to be alone or want to flock together with their like-feathered brethren.

Grackles and seagulls just want to be fed.

But the species featured in this particular gallery are different. They don’t flock together (except on the McLennan County Courthouse dome) and they don’t want to be fed. They don’t catch flies or run roads. They are not the subject of birdwatchers and indeed – (here’s our point) - they are watching us!

Perched over doors of buildings – is it a coincidence that these are the very buildings (banks, courthouses and post offices) where we take care of our most personal business?

The unblinking eyes of these sandstone seers, limestone voyeurs and marble eavesdroppers are in every county of the state. While a complete census has yet to be made, we’re beginning an inventory starting with this very page.